1932
0
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Annual Review of Anthropology
  4. Volume 47, 2018
  5. Article

Annual Review of Anthropology

Volume 47, 2018

Literature and Reading

Abstract

This article examines anthropological approaches to fiction reading. It asks why the field of literary anthropology remains largely disinvested of ethnographic work on literary cultures and how that field might approach the study of literature and reading ethnographically. The issue of the creative agency of fiction readers is explored in the context of what it means to ask anthropological questions of literature, which includes the challenge of speaking back to dominant approaches grounded in forms of critical analysis. Finally, the article looks to recent work in the anthropology of Christianity on Bible reading and engagements with biblical characters to open up new questions about the relationship between fiction reading and temporal regimes.

Keyword(s): agency, character, Christianity, fiction reading, history, time
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050223
2018-10-21
2024-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/anthro/47/1/annurev-anthro-102317-050223.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050223&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abu-Lughod L. 2000. Veiled Sentiments: Honour and Poetry in a Bedouin Society Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  2. Asad T. 1990. Ethnography, literature, and politics: some readings and uses of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.Cult. Anthropol 5:3239–69
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Badia J, Phegley J 2005. Reading Women: Literary Figures and Cultural Icons from the Victorian Age to the Present Toronto: Univ. Tor. Press
  4. Barber K 2006. Africa's Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press
  5. Barber K. 2007. The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics: Oral and Written Culture in African and Beyond Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  6. Bielo JS. 2009. Words Upon the Word: An Ethnography of Evangelical Group Bible Study New York: N. Y. Univ. Press
  7. Benson P 1993. Anthropology and Literature Chicago: Univ. Ill. Press
  8. Birkerts S. 1996. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age London: Faber & Faber
  9. Bleich D. 1986. Gender interests in reading and language. See Flynn & Schweickart 1986 234–66
  10. Boyarin D. 1993. Placing reading: Ancient Israel and Medieval Europe. See J Boyarin 1993 10–37
  11. Boyarin J 1993. The Ethnography of Reading Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  12. Brandel A 2016. City of letters: the making of literary life in Berlin. PhD Diss., Dep. Anthropol., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD
  13. Brandel A. 2018. A poet in the field: the companionship of literature and anthropology. Anthropol. Century 2018:21 http://aotcpress.com/articles/a-poet-in-the-field/
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Caton SC. 2006. Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Meditation New York: Hill & Wang
  15. Chartier R. 1994. The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries Cambridge, UK: Polity Press
  16. Clifford J. 1988. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature and Art Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  17. Clifford J, Marcus G 1986. Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  18. Cohen M 2013. Novel Approaches to Anthropology: Contributions to Literary Anthropology New York: Lexington Books
  19. Collinson I. 2009. Everyday Readers: Reading and Popular Culture London: Equinox
  20. Crapanzano V. 2000. Serving the Word: Literalism in America From the Pulpit to the Bench New York: New Press
  21. Daniel EV, Peck J 1996. Culture/Contexture: Explorations in Anthropology and Literary Studies Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  22. Darnton R. 1990. The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History London: Faber and Faber
  23. Daswani G. 2015. Looking Back, Moving Forward: Transformation and Ethical Practice in the Ghanaian Church of Pentecost Toronto: Univ. Tor. Press
  24. Davidson CN 1989. Reading in America: Literature and Social History Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  25. De Angelis R 2002. Between Anthropology and Literature London: Routledge
  26. De Certeau M 1988. The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  27. Dennis PA, Aycock W 1989. Literature and Anthropology Lubbock: Tex. Tech Univ. Press
  28. Eco U. 1984. The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press
  29. Eco U. 1994. Six Walks in the Fictional Woods Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  30. Engelsing R. 1970. Die Perioden der Lesergeschichte in der Neuzeit. Das statistische Ausmass and die soziokulturelle Bedeutung der Lektüre. Arch. Gesch. Buchwes. 10:945–1002
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Engelsing R. 1974. Der Bürger als Leser. Lesergeschichte in Deutschland 1500–1800 Stuttgart, Ger: Metzler
  32. Fetterley J. 1978. The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press
  33. Fish S. 1980. Is There a Text in This Class: The Authority of Interpretive Communities Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  34. Fish S. 1992. Literature in the reader: affective stylistics. See Tompkins 1992b 70–100
  35. Flint K. 1993. The Woman Reader Oxford, UK: Clarendon
  36. Flynn EA, Schweickart PP 1986. Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Texts, and Contexts Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  37. Freund E. 1987. The Return of the Reader: Reader-Response Criticism London: Methuen
  38. Fuller D, Rehberg Sedo N 2013. Reading Beyond the Book: The Social Practices of Contemporary Literary Culture London: Routledge
  39. Furani K. 2012. Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  40. Gade AM. 2004. Perfection Makes Practice: Learning, Emotion and the Recited Qur'ān in Indonesia Honolulu: Univ. Hawai‘i Press
  41. Geertz C. 1988. Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  42. Gell A. 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory Oxford, UK: Clarendon
  43. Graham WA 1987. Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  44. Handler R, Segal D 1990. Jane Austen and the Fiction of Culture: An Essay on the Narration of Social Realities Tucson: Univ. Ariz. Press
  45. Haynes N 2018. The expansive present: a new model of Christian time. Curr. Anthropol. In press
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Heath SB. 1983. Ways With Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  47. Hecht T. 2006. After Life: An Ethnographic Novel Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press
  48. Hellekson K, Busse K 2006. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays Jefferson, NC: McFarland
  49. Hillis Miller J. 2002. On Literature London: Routledge
  50. Hoesterey JB. 2015. Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  51. Holland NN. 1980. Re-covering “The Purloined Letter”: reading as a personal transaction. See Suleiman & Crosman 1980 350–70
  52. Holland NN. 1992. Unity identity text self. See Tompkins 1992b 118–33
  53. Hymes D. 2003. Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics Lincoln: Univ. Neb. Press
  54. Irvine RDG. 2010. How to read: Lectio divina in an English Benedictine monastery. Cult. Relig. 11:4395–411
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Iser W. 1980. Interaction between text and reader. See Suleiman & Crosman 1980 106–19
  56. Iser W. 1989. Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  57. Iser W. 1992. The reading process: a phenomenological approach. See Tompkins 1992b 50–69
  58. Iser W. 1993. The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  59. Jackson M. 1986. Barawa and the Way Birds Fly in the Sky Washington: Smithson. Inst
  60. Jackson M. 2013. The Other Shore: Essays in Writers and Writing Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  61. Jauss HR. 1982. Towards an Aesthetic of Reception Minneapolis: Univ. Minn. Press
  62. Jenkins H. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture London: Routledge
  63. Jenkins H. 2009. How “Dumbledore's Army” is transforming the real world: an interview with the HP Alliance's Andrew Slack. MIT Cent. Civic Media Blog July 23. https://civic.mit.edu/blog/how-dumbledores-army-is-transforming-our-world-an-interview-with-the-hp-alliances-andrew-slack-0
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Kelley M. 2006. Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America's Republic Chapel Hill: Univ. N. C. Press
  65. Livingston E. 1995. An Anthropology of Reading Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press
  66. Long E. 2003. Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  67. Luhrmann TM. 2012a. A hyperreal God and modern belief: toward an anthropological theory of mind. Cult. Anthropol. 53:4371–95
     [Google Scholar]
  68. Luhrmann TM. 2012b. When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God New York: Knopf
  69. Lyons M. 1999. New readers in the nineteenth century: women, children, workers. A History of Reading in the West G Cavallo, R Chartier 313–44 Cambridge, UK: Polity Press
     [Google Scholar]
  70. Manguel A. 1997. A History of Reading London: Flamingo
  71. Manoukian S. 2012. City of Knowledge in Twentieth Century Iran: Shiraz, History and Poetry London/New York: Routledge
  72. McHenry E. 2002. Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press
  73. Miller F. 2007. The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audiocassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  74. Narayan K. 2012. Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press
  75. Nardi B. 2010. My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press
  76. Newell S. 2000. Ghanaian Popular Fiction: ‘Thrilling Discoveries in Conjugal Life’ and Other Tales Oxford, UK: James Curry
  77. Newell S. 2002. Literary Culture in Colonial Ghana: ‘How to Play the Game of Life.’ Manchester: Manch. Univ. Press
  78. Olszewska Z. 2015. The Pearl of Dari: Poetry and Personhood Among Young Afghans in Iran Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press
  79. Pandian A, McLean S 2017. Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press
  80. Pearson J. 1999. Women's Reading in Britain 1750–1835: A Dangerous Recreation New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
  81. Poyatos F 1988. Literary Anthropology: A New Interdisciplinary Approach to People, Signs and Literature Philadelphia: John Benjamins
  82. Rabinowitz PJ. 1987. Before Reading: Narrative Conventions and the Politics of Interpretation Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press
  83. Radway JA. 1991. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature Chapel Hill: Univ. N. C. Press
  84. Radway JA. 1997. A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste and Middle-Class Desire Chapel Hill: Univ. N. C. Press
  85. Rapport N. 1994. The Prose and the Passion: Anthropology, Literature, and the Writing of EM Forster Manchester: Manch. Univ. Press
  86. Rapport N. 1997. Transcendent Individual: Essays Towards a Literary and Liberal Anthropology London: Routledge
  87. Reed A. 2002a. City of details: interpreting the personality of London. J. R. Anthropol. Inst. 8:127–41
     [Google Scholar]
  88. Reed A. 2002b. Henry and I: an ethnographic account of men's fiction reading. Ethnos 67:2181–200
     [Google Scholar]
  89. Reed A. 2004. Expanding “Henry”: fiction reading and its artifacts in a British literary society. Am. Ethnol. 31:111–22
     [Google Scholar]
  90. Reed A. 2011. Literature and Agency in English Fiction Reading: A Study of the Henry Williamson Society Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press
  91. Reed A. 2019. Minor character reading: tracing an English literary society through its culture of investigation. PMLA 134:1 In press
     [Google Scholar]
  92. Reed A, Bialecki J 2018. Introduction to special section 1: anthropology and character. Soc. Anthropol. 26:159–67
     [Google Scholar]
  93. Rose J. 2001. The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
  94. Rosen M. 2015. Ethnographies of reading: beyond literacy and books. Anthropol. Q. 88:41059–83
     [Google Scholar]
  95. Sabeti S. 2017. Creativity and Learning in Later Life: An Ethnography of Museum Education London: Routledge
  96. Salvino DN. 1989. The word in black and white: ideologies of race and literacy in Antebellum America. See Davidson 1989 140–56
  97. Schielke S. 2016. Can poetry change the world? Reading Amal Dunqul in Egypt in 2011. Islam and the Popular Arts K van Nieuwkerk, M LeVine, M Stokes 122–48 Austin: Univ. Tex. Press
     [Google Scholar]
  98. Schielke S, Saad Shehata M 2016. The writing of lives: an ethnography of writers and their milieus in Alexandria Work. Pap. 17, Zentrum Moderner Orient
  99. Secord JA. 2003. Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  100. Sicherman B. 1989. Sense and sensibility: a case study of women's reading in late-Victorian America. See Davidson 1989 157–79
  101. Steedly M. 1993. Hanging Without a Rope: Narrative Experience in Colonial and Postcolonial Karoland Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  102. Stoller P. 1999. The Jaguar: A Story of Africans in America Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press
  103. Suleiman SR. 1980. Introduction: varieties of audience-oriented criticism. See Suleiman & Crosman 1980 3–44
  104. Suleiman SR, Crosman I 1980. The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  105. Tompkins J. 1992a. An introduction to reader-response criticism. See Tompkins 1992b, pp. ix–xxvi
  106. Tompkins J 1992b. Reader-Response Criticism. From Formalism to Post-Structuralism Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
  107. Wulff H 2016. The Anthropologist as Writer: Genres and Contexts in the Twenty-First Century. Oxford, UK: Berghahn
  108. Wulff H. 2017. Rhythms of Writing: An Anthropology of Irish Literature London: Bloomsbury Academic
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050223
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error